Actually, if you knew Martin O'Malley, you would know that he was planning to run for President. I was pretty sure that was his career track when we were both neighbours in Baltimore's Mt. Vernon Place and students at the University of Maryland Law school. Martin is a few years younger than I am, but he was working for Barbara Mikulski.

New Hampshire, Delegate Tony O'Donnell said, "It's the worst-kept secret in Maryland that the governor has national ambitions" after Martin stood in for Hillary Clinton at a Democratic campaign event in 2007.

I'm not that close to him (surprised and a little annoyed that he didn't acknowledge my congratulations on his winning the Governor post, but that's another story); so, I guess I should have known that he was making his plan to run for President in 2016 and has been since 2013.

Anyway, I received something asking who should run for president in 2016 and guess who was on the list?

Why, Martin O'Malley.

Of course, knowing his attitude toward guns, I should support him. But, there is something deep down in me that wouldn't vote for the guy. Well, at least not in a primary. He's too much of a politician and not enough of a leader. In other words, if you don't like Barack Obama--you will hate O'Malley.

With that, I'll end with this music video from Morrissey (No, I don't really feel this way, but I am a slacker compared with some of the people I've grown up with--although there are people who have done much worse than I have).

The Buffalo Police Department may be looking into using a rarely enforced law to help keep unused and unwanted guns from falling into the wrong hands.

Buffalo Police Commissioner Daniel Derenda recently said the department will be sending people to collect guns that once belonged to pistol permit holders who have died.

It's a plan that has some gun owners and 2nd Amendment advocates up in arms.

"The idea of the police confiscating them is repugnant not only to the 2nd Amendment but certainly the 5th and 14th Amendment, which don't permit deprivation of property without due process," said attorney Steve Cohen.

Cohen, an attorney at Hogan Willig who specializes in constitutional law, said there is a legal avenue for the estate to dispose of the weapons.

"There is a section in the penal law that says that the state has to dispose of the weapon within two weeks, maybe 15 days. The reality is, when somebody dies, the family can obtain, the state representative executor can obtain a certificate of non-destruction. They can turn these firearms into a police department and have somebody with an FFL, Federal Firearms License, a gun store, sell these weapons for the estate," said Cohen.

"It's not an attempt to restrict anybody's gun rights or take property from people. It's just an attempt to ensure that the proper disposition occurs with these weapons," said Renaldo.

According to state law, the estate of a deceased person has 15 days to dispose of that person's firearms or surrender the firearms to a law enforcement agency.

Today, during the scheduled Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting, the Commission members voted against a proposal that would have banned the use of lead ammunition for your sporting purposes. This misguided proposal was offered due to an emotional reaction, not one based on sound science and biological data. We thank all NRA members across Colorado who respectfully contacted Commission members and expressed their opposition to such an unfounded and unnecessary action.

What lying bullshit. The proposal to ban lead ammo is based directly on "sound science and biological data." The NRA just doesn't like it.

The National Rifle Association says Michigan has outdated and “unduly burdensome” restraints on the purchase and possession of most air guns. Backers of an eight-bill package say it would bring Michigan in line with federal standards.

The legislation would redefine the term “firearm” to exclude guns that propel a projectile by gas, spring or air.

One bill approved 102-6 by the House Wednesday would repeal a law making it a misdemeanor for a minor to possess a BB gun unless accompanied by an adult. A Senate-passed bill pending in the House would generally prohibit local governments from regulating ownership of paintball and BB guns.

Municipalities could limit their use to authorized locations or on private property.

OK, this is a tradition that needs to be experienced in person, but this comes pretty close to what it is like. It usually comes as a surprise for the non-Dutch/Flemish when they first encounter it (I know it did me).

And, Sinterklaas and Zwarte Pieten are now visiting Holland and the Flemish parts of Belgium. That said: here's some Zwarte Pieten!

A few years ago, I had a job that involved listening to a ton of
podcasts. It’s possible that I’ve heard more podcasts than anyone else—I
listened to at least a little bit of tens of thousands of shows. Of
course, the vast majority were so bad I’d often wish microphones could
be sold only to licensed users.

According to a study released this week by the Violence Policy Center in Washington D.C., Vermont had 78 gun deaths in 2011, compared to 54 fatal car accidents as reported by the Governor's Highway Safety Program.

For people who insist that the inconvenience of having to conduct a background check prior to selling a gun is more important than blocking the sale to criminals, I suppose the concerns about elephants are a laugh compared to the right to trade in all those ivory-handled guns that are so common among gun owners.

As Sinterklaas is coming to town this weekend: here is a description of a tradition that I experienced live and in person when I lived in Belgium. I was walking down the street in Antwerp to run into two men in blackface (and this was after Vlaams Bloc won the election). I decided to keep my wisearse comments to myself.

Anyway, Sedaris has a couple of questions he asks to break the ice.

Personally, I prefer what makes the Netherlands interesting to what makes the US interesting.

Although, I am sure that some people will prefer what makes the US interesting.

Thursday, November 13, 2014

OK, before making your fucked up comments about "your rights", put yourself into the shoes of this man. That might be more of a possibility than you care to accept given that having a gun in the home increases the possibility of death or serious bodily injury from said WEAPON.

That's a hard fact to argue against since one cannot argue that something which is not present can cause harm, but you will do that anyway.

I know that you have limited intellectual capabilities and probably cannot get your head around what this man is saying, but try. Try very hard.

Maybe you have gotten this far, but I doubt it. Now, Imagine that you have someone saying that they don't care about the lives of your children.

Let's use the intellectual midget Samuel Wurzelbacher: "Hey, Sam, I'm sorry you kept a gun in your house and your kid shot himself with it, but, hey, fuck you. your dead kids don’t mean too much to me. Anyway, it was exercising "your right" that led to that result. "

I know that may sound mean to you since deep down you are a bunch of wusses who couldn't defend yourself, and probably can't defend yourself with a gun, when it came down to it, but that is what you are saying to other people.

As I asked: can you develop compassion? Because, why should we care about your kids if you don't care about others' children?

And even Weazelboy admits he can't comprehend this concept: "You can’t take a step in his shoes – at least I can’t...I cannot begin to imagine the pain you are going through, having had your child taken away from you."

Maybe you need to try, asshole. But, you don't have the brainpower to do it. I also seriously doubt you understand the Heller and McDonald decisions, but that doesn't stop you from opening your mouth to make an asshole of yourself.

Or to realise that you are putting your child at danger because you are a moron.

Maybe the day will come when you understand what an idiot you are, but I am not holding my breath.

New Hampshire's attorney general says a Canterbury, New Hampshire, man died of an accidental gunshot wound to the head.

The report released Wednesday concludes that 53-year-old Mark Kelso's revolver accidentally went off before or after he slipped on ice on Feb. 23.

Attorney General Joseph Foster says Kelso was walking between his truck and a logging skidder when he fell and struck his head on the skidder's blade.

An autopsy revealed bullet fragments from a gunshot wound that entered through Kelso's face.

The report concludes Kelso may have been uncocking his gun when he slipped on the ice. It also states that homicide and suicide cannot be completely ruled out as possibilities; there was no motive nor evidence to support either of those causes.

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

What they seem to forget is that the war on Christmas began pretty much from the start of when it began to be celebrated in Roman times since most people knew that it was Saturnalia being repackaged. Additionally, there has never really been any consensus as to what date would actually be that of Jesus' birth. Anyway, It wasn't until the Puritans came around and wanted to remove pagan influences from everyday life that the celebrations were muted down a whole lot:

That was the reason that George Washington attacked the Hessian forces in Trenton, NJ on Christmas Eve: It wasn't a holiday for the Continental soldiers. In fact, the US Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America’s new constitution. Gradually, some states made it a legal holiday with the first three states to make Christmas a legal holiday were in the South: Alabama in 1836, Louisiana and Arkansas in 1838. Christmas was finally proclaimed a holiday by the United States Congress in 1870: 81 years after the founding of the US.

The modern concept of Christmas appeared about the time Charles Dickens penned his "A Christmas Carol" in the 1840s and was helped along by Queen Victoria. Historian Stephen Nissenbaum contends that the modern celebration in the United States was developed in New York State from defunct and imagined Dutch and English traditions in order to refocus the holiday from one where groups of young men went from house to house demanding alcohol and food into one centered on the happiness of children.

The real problem with Christmas is that there are both secular and religious celebrations of the holiday with the addition that the two different parts of the Christian Church Eastern and Western celebrate the holiday a couple of weeks apart. In fact, how many people actually know what exactly is meant by the 12 Days of Christmas, let alone still celebrate them? In fact, you could have a seriously long Christmas celebration if you wanted to begin with Advent and go to Candlemas. I've heard some celebrations begin with All Saints Day and go to Candlemas.

Maybe you get the picture here, or maybe you don't. The bottom line is that the US has some serious decisions to make if they truly want to place "Christ in Christmas".

Especially, since some Christian sects still don't see it as a Christian holiday.

SalonPut a man in uniform, preferably a white man, give him a gun, and Americans will worship him. It is a particularly childish trait, of a childlike culture, that insists on anointing all active military members and police officers as “heroes.” The rhetorical sloppiness and intellectual shallowness of affixing such a reverent label to everyone in the military or law enforcement betrays a frightening cultural streak of nationalism, chauvinism, authoritarianism and totalitarianism, but it also makes honest and serious conversations necessary for the maintenance and enhancement of a fragile democracy nearly impossible.*******************One of the reasons that the American public so eagerly and excitedly complies with the cultural code of lionizing every soldier and cop is because of the physical risk-taking and bravery many of them display on the foreign battleground and the American street. Physical strength and courage is only useful and laudable when invested in a cause that is noble and moral. The causes of American foreign policy, especially at the present, rarely qualify for either compliment. The “troops are heroes” boosters of American life typically toss out clichés to defend their generalization – “They defend our freedom,” “They fight so we don’t have to.”********************Wars that are not heroic have no real heroes, except for the people who oppose those wars. Far from being the heroes of recent wars, American troops are among their victims. No rational person can blame the soldier, the Marine, the airman, or the Navy man for the stupid and destructive foreign policy of the U.S. government, but calling them “heroes,” and settling for nothing less, makes honest and critical conversations about American foreign policy less likely to happen. If all troops are heroes, it doesn’t make much sense to call their mission unnecessary and unjust. It also makes conversations about the sexual assault epidemic, or the killing of innocent civilians, impossible. If all troops are heroes, it doesn’t make any sense to acknowledge that some are rapists and sadists.

Texas has staunchly defended the Second Amendment to the Constitution as it pertains to citizens' rights to bear arms, and its laws reflect that anti-gun control belief.

More than 750,000 state residents have active concealed handgun licenses, and Texas has had a CHL program for 18 years. Also, permit-owning residents of 41 states can legally carry their firearms within Texas' borders.

Still, Texas is always looking for ways to further support individual liberties. In May 2013, the state House of Representatives passed multiple bills, all co-authored by Republican state Rep. Wayne Smith.

House Bill 1076. The measure proactively preserves citizens' rights, and enhances the ability of the police to protect the public. It essentially prohibits state or municipal law officers from knowingly enforcing certain federal gun control laws.

House Bill 1314. This bill prevents the enforcement of federal laws that exceed the government's constitutional power by creating a new law for the unlawful seizure of a firearm.

House Bill 972. The measure allows concealed handgun permit holders to carry in public institutions of higher education, extending Second Amendment protection to students, faculty, and visitors. Individuals could opt out of the provision, however.

House Bill 1304. Protects a permit holder from being penalized for accidentally displaying a handgun.

I find that last one curious. In the same way that castle-doctrine and stand-your-ground laws are redundant to the already existing self-defense laws, this attempt to legalize accidentally displaying a handgun is completely unnecessary. Furthermore, like the so-called get-away-with-murder laws, legalizing so-called accidents is harmful. Bullying and threatening concealed carry permit holders will be emboldened by having the legal right to "unintentionally" make their weapons visible.

Instead, it should be incumbent upon them to properly and successfully conceal their guns.

A handful of gun store owners are challenging state law in federal court, arguing a gun advertising law infringes on their First Amendment rights.

On the outside of Tracy Rifle and Pistol, in Tracy, several large pictures are displayed, showing firearms. These cover sections of the windows.

Store owner Michael Baryla said Monday he posted the photos to make the building look better and to show the public what type of guns he sells.

Baryla said he was recently cited by the Department of Justice for having the pictures of the handguns up.

"It’s kind of silly, because if you look right outside on the window, we have an AR-15 rifle right next to a handgun," Baryla said. "The AR-15 is 100 percent fine -- the hand gun, on the other hand, isn’t fine."

Baryla is referring to a state law, penal code 26820, that prohibits using handgun ads that can be seen from the outside.

Baryla and three other gun store owners are challenging the law in federal court. A suit was filed Monday.

Baryla argues the California law infringes on his First Amendment rights.

"We, as a business, have the right to fairly advertise and speak our minds," Baryla said. "There’s no justification for banning the advertisement of something that is constitutionally protected."

The worst part of it was that the CRS chest badge is visible in the picture the people used. Even though the resolution was about that of the picture above, the CRS emblem is pretty distinctive. Anyone familiar with the French police would spot thisimmédiatement.

And you should be able to tell they aren't US cops by their uniforms...

I cry but I can't buyYour Veteran's Day poppyIt don't get me highIt can only make me cryIt can never grow anotherSon like the one who warmed me my daysAfter rain and warmed my breathMy life's bloodScreamin' empty she crysIt don't get me highIt can only make me cryYour Veteran's Day poppy.

Glynn County’s politically conservative commissioners generally support gun rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

But they disagree with a law that Georgia’s General Assembly adopted that gave residents the right to carry firearms into government buildings. The County Commission decided that the law, which went into effect July 1, goes too far and has banned guns at the Historic Courthouse during its bi-monthly meetings.

“I don’t want people to carry guns into our meetings,” Commission Chairman Michael Browning said. “I may be a little older, but I can still duck pretty fast. But it’s not about me. We have to protect the people.”

The gun ban went into effect last month and now the commission will have to decide how far it wants it to reach. Currently, it only applies to the commission’s regular meetings but could be extended to cover periodic work sessions or even to prohibit guns at all times in all county buildings.

Strickland emphasized that the commission was not trying to make a political statement by initiating the ban.

“I’m a big proponent of the Second Amendment right to bear arms,” he said, “but it has become a safety issue. Our top priority is the safety of the public, our staff and the commissioners.”

Monday, November 10, 2014

The biggest changes were in the lives of women and children: •
Books of nursery rhymes were published which encouraged children to
play with guns and enjoy fighting. Children's songs were about
bloodshed, violence and anti-Semitism.

A college student who was arrested after being found with a rifle in his SUV off campus, pled guilty to a federal weapons charge Thursday of unlawful transport of a firearm.

William Dong, 23, the now-former University of New Haven student incurred the charge when it was discovered he had what Connecticut law classifies as an “assault rifle” that he had acquired legally in Pennsylvania, but illegally transported back to his home state.The student had bought the rifle after closing a deal through guns classified site Armslist.com in September 2013, after Connecticut’s expanded assault weapons ban had taken affect.

Since the Bushmaster XM-15E2S was prohibited in Connecticut, he was charged with a violation of interstate commerce under federal law. Dong entered a guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Hartford and now faces a $250,000 fine and up to five years in federal prison.

Attorney Frederick Paoletti Jr., Dong’s representative, told the New Haven Register that his client had no intention to hurt anyone.

Dong was arrested in 2013 on university grounds with two handguns in his possession while the rifle was locked in his SUV off campus. Dong, who worked at the time for an armored car company, had a clean record and permits for his handguns. His arrest stemmed from a police manhunt after a homeless woman saw the rifle in his vehicle at a drugstore near campus and called authorities to report it.

Charged by the state over the handguns with two counts of having a firearm on unauthorized premises since the university had prohibited guns even with a permit, Dong entered a guilty plea in a local court in exchange for an expected two-year sentence in October.

In custody since last year at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, Dong faces his sentencing hearing from the state of Connecticut Dec. 19.

According to a Kentucky State Police report, James D. Goins, 24, Sacramento, and his wife, Hannah Goins, 25, were hunting off Kentucky 881 in the Reed community at about 1:20 a.m. James Goins accidentally dropped the 12 gauge shotgun they were hunting with. When the gun hit the ground, it discharged shooting him in both his lower legs.

The report said James Goins was able to walk to the road and seek medical attention. He was transported by ambulance to Methodist Hospital where he was treated for minor injuries. Hannah Goins was not injured.

A Washington man is recovering from a gunshot wound he sustained Wednesday night at his residence, police said.

Police identified the victim as Andrew Broder, 21, who was struck in both feet by a bullet that was fired inside his home.

Police Chief Ken Hahn said Broder and two other men were sitting in the home’s living room when the accident occurred.

Hahn said another man, Lucus Coulter, 21, Washington, was sitting on the couch next to Broder and had a handgun in his lap. Coulter told police when he picked up the gun he accidentally pulled the trigger, firing the weapon.

Hahn said Coulter admitted to drinking and smoking marijuana prior to the accident.

The victim said the shooting was accidental and told police he did not want to prosecute, according to Hahn.

Maybe this is a new beginning. When gun nuts admit they pulled the trigger instead of blaming the gun, they get a pass.

The comforting thing is that so few gun owners smoke pot and drink while handling their guns.

For the fourth time in recent months, gunfire has claimed the life of a metro Detroit child — this one a 9-year-old boy who found a gun in his house while home alone with two other kids.

According to police, the shooting happened at about 4:40 p.m. today in the 16100 block of Northlawn. The 9-year-old victim was home with a 13-year-old and a 10-year-old when a handgun was discovered, police said.

"It's very early on in the investigation to be making any kind of claim," said Detroit Police Sgt. Michael Woody, noting police "are being told" the shooting was self-inflicted, but they don't know that for sure.

Police said no adults were present at the home during this incident, but the victim's mother was notified after the shooting.

Police said, at this point, it does not appear the mother or anyone else will face any charges.

Last month, a 3-year-old girl was shot and killed in a Detroit home following a tiff that started on Facebook.

In September, a 7-year-old girl was shot in the chest as she rode her bike in northeast Detroit. The girl, who survived with serious injuries, was caught in the crossfire of a shooting involving two cars.

In July, a 9-year-old boy died after a stray bullet entered his bedroom while he slept. That same month, a 2-year-old was shot point-blank at an Inkster housing project by a man whom police say was retaliating against her father for something and wanted to see him suffer.